Uncle Tom's Cabin

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Illustration from an early edition of Uncle Tom's Cabin

The first installment of Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) — the novel which was to bring her international fame — appeared in June 1851 in the National Era, an anti-slavery paper in Washington DC.

It was serialized until April 1852 and was based of accounts of runaway slaves which she heard, and evidence of their conditions of slaves which she gathered, while visiting Kentucky, a Slave State. It was a powerful indictment of slavery, it did not attract much interest until it was published as a novel in 1852. More than 500,000 copies were sold in the first five years in the USA alone.

Although Harriet Beecher Stowe became a hated figure in the slave-owning States, her novel galvanized anti-slavery sentiment in the North. Many historians regard her novel as a significant force in leading to the Civil War which ended in the defeat of the Confederate States of America and the abolition of slavery in the USA.

Born in Litchfield, Connecticut. While visiting Kentucky she heard accounts of runaway slaves.

Between 1850 and 1852 she began writing Uncle Tom's Cabin. Between June 1851 until April 1852 it was serialized in a newspaper, but it was not until it was published in book form that it ignited a nation, selling 500,000 copies in the USA during five years.